Managed to book my first RTW back in May, thanks to advice here and a ton of route exploring all over the ANA website. 125,000 points + $588 in taxes & fees*

UA: EWR -> KEF (Y)
SK & LH: KEF -> OSL -> FRA
* Rail & My Own Flights
TK: ATH -> IST
TK: IST -> TLV
ET: TLK -> ADD -> BKK
* BKK -> HKT ($120)
* SQ: HKT -> AKL (62,000 miles + $107)
* AZ: AKL -> SYD ($246)
NH: SYD -> HND -> SFO

Notes:

• This is a long-planned (pre-COVID), long trip, lots of local stops which threw off easier routings but also let me mess around with more ground connects / flexibility.
• Flights were all ~6-10 months out so had to push some dates around several weeks to find a lucky, single-seat. Booking Y would have been a relative breeze.
• There was no J availability to KEF from anywhere in the US I could find, but moving down to Y saved me ~$600 in taxes. Coughed up $200 for a UA E+ upgrade to offset.
• Could not find anything from SE Asia to NZ/Australia, so used Chase points to grab an SQ flight in J. That saved me 40,000 ANA points. Guess I have to RTW again?
• The ANA agents were so so friendly along the process, and amazingly, called me back a few times to wrap things up with taxes, and an excess segment in Europe they had missed.
• I did have to wait about a day for them to actually book the ticket which was completely nerve-wracking, hoping no one snagged the near impossible to find J route back from SYD to SFO.
• Using the UA and RTW websites was not all that useful for me. Mostly had to just keep trying the ANA site, clicking their COVID popups about 12,749 times.